When the kye come hame, when the kye come hame, 'Tween the gloamin' and the mirk, when the kye come hame. 'Tis not beneath the burgonet, nor yet beneath the crown, 'Tis not on couch of velvet, nor yet on bed of down'Tis beneath the spreading birch, in the dell without a name, Wi' a bonnie, bonnie lassie, when the kye come hame. Then the eye shines so bright, the hale soul to beguile, See yonder pawkie shepherd, that lingers on the hill, Awa' wi' fame and fortune-what comfort can they gi'e? And a' the arts that prey upon man's life and liberty: Gi'e me the highest joy that the heart o' man can frameMy bonnie, bonnie lassie, when the kye come hame. His Skylark is a general favorite, for its rich melody: Bird of the wilderness, blithesome and cumberless, Wild is thy lay and loud, far in the downy cloud, Where, on thy dewy wing, where art thou journeying? O'er fell and fountain sheen, o'er moor and mountain O'er the red streamer that heralds the day, Over the cloudlet dim, over the rainbow's rim, Musical cherub, soar, singing away! green, Then, when the gloaming comes, low in the heather bloom Emblem of happiness, blest is thy dwelling-place- LAMB-the gentle, genial "Elia"-thus soliloquizes upon the loss of friends : I have had playmates, I have had companions, I have been laughing, I have been carousing, Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood; Seeking to find the old familiar faces. Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, How some they have died, and some they have left me, All, all are gone—the old familiar faces! The genius of KIRKE WHITE, which elicited the beautiful tribute of Byron, is seen in the following lines, addressed to An Early Primrose: Mild offspring of a dark and sullen sire! Was nursed in whirling storms, and cradled in the winds: Thee, when young Spring first questioned Winter's sway, And dared the sturdy blusterer to the fight, Thee on this bank he threw, to mark his victory. In this low vale, the promise of the year, So virtue blooms, brought forth amid the storms Of life she rears her head, obscure and unobserved; While every bleaching breeze that on her blows, And hardens her to bear serene the ills of life. Hear MONTGOMERY's glowing apostrophe to Home: There is a spot of earth supremely blest- The beautiful lines which he wrote upon Burns, will win a welcome from every reader : What bird, in beauty, flight, or song, can with the Bard compare, change; He was not one, but all by turns, with transmigration strange : The blackbird, oracle of Spring, when flowed his moral lay; The humming-bird, from bloom to bloom, inhaling heavenly balm; The raven, in the tempest's gloom, the halcyon in the calm : The woodlark in his mournful hours, the goldfinch in his mirth; The thrush, a spendthrift of his powers, enrapturing heaven and earth; The swan, in majesty and grace, contemplative and still : But roused-no falcon in the chase could like his satire kill; But more than all beside was he the nightingale in love. Oh! had he never stooped to shame, nor lent a charm to vice, One of the most spirit-stirring poems in the language is Montgomery's Patriot's Pass-word. It is founded on the heroic achievement of Arnold de Winkelried, at the battle of Sempach, in which the Swiss insurgents secured the freedom of their country against the despotic power of Austria, in the fourteenth century: Ir arms the Austrian phalanx stood, A living wall, a human wood! |